The tusi drug can be cooked up in a kitchen without specialist equipment and sold for a profit. Contrary to popular belief, Tucibi or tuci, typically lacks any amount of 2C-B. Instead, it is composed of a blend of ketamine, amphetamines, or MDMA, and at times mixed with opioids or hallucinogens like LSD and mescaline and opioids like fentanyl and oxycodone. Regardless of how dangerous the mixture is, the bright candy color and the cheap price are appealing to many potential users. The problem is that there’s no way to know what other drugs or chemicals are inside “pink cocaine.” NEW YORK – “Tusi,” better known as “pink cocaine,” is popping up in nightclubs from coast to coast.

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Man-made drugs such as tusi are becoming more popular as they are cheaper and quicker to ‘cook’, but the effects of them can vary much more than with plant-based drugs. According to Vice, the drug was first discovered in Colombia in 2010 and has become synonymous with young drug dealers in major cities who make and sell it for use in the country’s late night club scenes and tourist sex trade. Dealers market it on the back of its colour as a high more exclusive than cocaine, and Vice describes it as “more of a brand than a specific substance”. Safety Note Fentanyl test strips and other components of a drug testing kit can reduce (though not eliminate) the chance of ingesting deadly compounds in any drug you take.

To make the drug more appealing, narcos started mixing the powder with sweet pink food coloring. Soon, demand outpaced the supply of 2C-B available in Latin America, so Colombian dealers cut the powder with cheaper, longer-lasting, and more abundant European imports like MDMA and ketamine. The curious drug users, including adolescents, young adults, and those intrigued by this new drug hitting the streets.

Pink cocaine appears to be riding on the back of ketamine’s meteoric rise in popularity, mostly because it’s cheap and easy to make. But it may also be the case that pink cocaine offers both social capital and a means of escape. With this powder, anyone can project an image of enviable glamour on social media, and take an affordable trip to another planet, if only for a couple hours — at least, that’s the image cartels are projecting. But, Vidal said, we don’t know enough yet to tell exactly where tusi is most popular, or who exactly is using it.

Is the Tusi Drug Having a Moment?

• “Tusi not only emerged as a new drug for a new generation, but also popularized the idea that you can make your own drugs at home,” Quintero said.
• Here, we do our best to dispel some of the mystique around pink cocaine by unpacking its composition, properties, culture, and risks.
• Yesterday, it was reported out of Denver, Colorado, that a jewelry heist was connected to Tren de Argua, an infamous gang out of Venezuela.
• A bright pink drug from Colombia that is a mish-mash of MDMA and ketamine is gaining traction among drug users in Europe.
• Pink cocaine is pink thanks to food coloring or dye, said Joseph Palamar, who studies drug trends at NYU Langone Health in New York.

He was reportedly pulled over for a traffic stop and found to have 10 pounds of pink cocaine in a bag. The popularity of 2C-B seems to have grown across the past two decades, with detection in US drug seizures increasing from 2006 to 2015 and seeing an uptick in 2019, according to research compiled in Palmar’s study. Additionally, “last-month” use of 2C series drugs increased from 0.2 percent in 2017 to 2.1 percent in 2022 among nightclub attendees in New York City. “This drug is connected to the neo-drug trafficker culture in Colombia,” Julian Quintero, a sociologist and researcher at Social Technical Action, a Colombian drug policy NGO, told VICE World News.

Users might feel an overwhelming urge to keep using tuci for its euphoric effects due to its MDMA content, spiked with speed, which puts the user on alert at the same time. Over time, users can build a tolerance, needing more of the drug to get the same high, which escalates the addiction risk. A survey of 1,412 recreational drug users carried out earlier this year by Energy Control, a drug harm reduction NGO, found one in five people said they had used tusi in the last 12 months.

• Within days, headlines in TMZ, ABC News, and the Guardian announced that he had “pink cocaine” in his system.
• DoubleBlind is a trusted resource for news, evidence-based education, and reporting on psychedelics.
• “Know first and foremost that it is not 2C-B and that it is not a substance but a cocktail or mixture of stimulant and depressant substances,” says Ahumada.
• According to Vice, the drug was first discovered in Colombia in 2010 and has become synonymous with young drug dealers in major cities who make and sell it for use in the country’s late night club scenes and tourist sex trade.
• In other recent drug-related news, MDMA could be made available in US hospitals as soon as 2024 after new research found that the drug was an effective treatment for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• With this powder, anyone can project an image of enviable glamour on social media, and take an affordable trip to another planet, if only for a couple hours — at least, that’s the image cartels are projecting.

Although specific information on its composition remains limited, preliminary testing has found it to be an ever-changing cocktail of stimulants, opioids, and psychoactive compounds that can exert a wide range of effects. Users and harm reduction specialists say it usually feels like a light stimulant (comparable to weak cocaine or ecstasy) that can cause euphoria, “sexy” feelings, and psychedelic effects or visuals that sometimes tip over into “bad trip” territory. The effects are unpredictable because the cocktail’s composition varies greatly across regions and batches. Cases of pink cocaine being contaminated with fentanyl have yet to be reported in the US, but that hasn’t stopped Palamar from worrying about it.

Where is pink cocaine coming from?

Within the United States, an analysis of 19 pink powders submitted to and tested by DrugsData found that 95 percent contained ketamine. 63 percent contained MDMA, 53 percent contained caffeine, and 16 percent had methamphetamine. Cocaine, MDA, Oxycodone, DMT, Tramadol, and a few other substances were found in less than 11 percent of powders tested. No 2C series compounds were detected in this analysis.1 Pink cocaine or tusi also typically contains food coloring or flavored jelly powder, which impart its famous pink color and sweet taste.

What in the world is pink cocaine?

Tusi, or pink cocaine, is thought to have originated in Colombia in the early 2010s, spread by narco-traffickers. Depending on the composition and local perceptions of the drug, it can vary from being a cheap and abundant alternative to cocaine or 2C-B to a drug that is quite expensive and favored by the upper classes. The toosie colombian drug street drug primarily consists of ketamine, an anesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects, but may contain other stimulants, opioids and benzodiazepines, medicines used to treat anxiety because they slow down the nervous system.

Europe

With people confined to their homes during lockdowns, drug use became an increasingly attractive option. Those with limited experience in acquiring street drugs could create pink cocaine from readily available products. As with many synthetic drugs, it can cause psychological and physical dependence.

How Does The Drug Make Users Feel?

Tucibi has gained notoriety as a party drug, taking the place of ecstasy in nightclubs and raves. Due to the unpredictable composition of Tucibi, even a first-time use can prove fatal. The term tusi itself does not have a specific meaning in standard Spanish; it is an everyday term used in the drug trade and among users. The composition of Tucibi can vary greatly, making it a potentially unpredictable and dangerous substance, as it may include a variety of other high-risk substances such as cathinones, opioids, and benzodiazepines. Without testing, it’s impossible to know exactly what’s in any given batch of pink cocaine (tusi).

Today, young people may not know the history of the name tusi and they may be confused by the name pink cocaine, he said. Pink cocaine is also known as “tusi,” but both nicknames for the powder are more about marketing than reality. Experts say it rarely contains cocaine and is more likely to contain ketamine, a drug with very different effects. Over the past 5 years, tusi has experienced a resurgence, especially in South and Central American club environments. Each manufacturer or street dealer can craft their blend with varying proportions of ketamine and amphetamines.